What do you think Before I Forget means?

Slipknot: Before I Forget Meaning

Album cover for Before I Forget album cover

Song Released: 2005


Before I Forget Lyrics

Go!

Stapled shut, inside an outside world and I'm
Sealed in tight, bizarre but right at home
Claustrophobic, closing in and I'm
Catastrophic, not again
I'm smeared across the page, and doused in gasoline
I wear you like a stain, yet I'm...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    KingJazza
    click a star to vote
    Apr 4th 2010 !⃝

    I'd have to say this song is trying communicate the importance of individuality and being unique as well as the importance of a destination, rather than the journey or way to get there.
    The song is basically saying we all evolve, and the end result is what matters, not how we get there. This can be seen in the line "My end, it justifies my means".
    The evolution of a person's personality and who they are can be seen in the lines "I am a world before i am a man, i was a creature before i could stand"
    It is important to remember who you used to be, even if that person is long gone, and that is seen in the line "I will remember before i forget", which follows up the previous two lines.
    It also tells of how it doesn't matter how bad the world is, you must evolve into who you truly are. No matter how people interpret you, how weird or bad they think you are, you should be who you are, and evolve into that person. This can be seen in the lines "Stapled shut, inside an outside world" (a chaotic, hypocritical world) "sealed in tight" (stuck in there) "claustrophobic" (also stuck in the small area and mindset of people) "yet I'm the one whos obscene" (saying that he is normal, or not even that bad, but everyone thinks that he is the worst, most obscene person).
    This shows that you must escape the prejudices and discrimination and hate from other people, and just be who you are, evolve into who you really are.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 28th 2009 !⃝

    First of all.. everyone has their own meaning in songs there is no right or wrong, if you say that someone is wrong then your not a real slipknot fan nor a fan of music.

    (Stapled shut, inside and ouside would and I'm
    Sealed in tight, bizarre but right at home) I personaly think that they are talking about our society today.. That everyone is "bizarr" and "weird" for diffrend reasons but wont admit it, that we cant be ourselfs we are following everyone elses example. We cant break out and be ourselfs because then we are weird eventhough everyone else are weird in their own way. (I've got no time to lose, and I'm just caught up in all the cattle)

    (I am a world before I am a man
    I was a creature before I could stand
    I will remember before I forget
    BEFORE I FORGET THAT!) In this they are saying that we where animals from the beginning. We were bizarr and weird but that didnt matter then. We could be ourselfs and dont care about what others think. We should remember that passed eventhough we have forgotten it.

    (My end
    It justifies my means
    All I ever do is delay
    My every attempt to evade
    The end of the road is my end
    It justifies my means
    All I ever do is delay
    My every attempt to evade) That we are trying to evade being ourselfs and show our "bizarr" side to others.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    Songreader
    click a star to vote
    May 19th 2009 !⃝

    I would say this song is all about not forgetting where you came from. Slipknot is huge and successful now,but they all came from the same place: starting out as a helpless baby. The lines "stapled shut,inside an outside world" references being in your mother before birth,as does "sealed in tight,bizzare but right at home". It is only obscurely referencing life before birth,using it as something of a metaphor for the bands rise to fame. So what they're saying is,"we're loving fame,but anybody can end up like us,because we all start at being nothing,in a life before life,and we won't forget that".

  4. nightmare_moon
    click a star to vote
    Aug 7th 2023 !⃝

    I know this probably isn’t everyone’s interpretation, but I personally resonate with this song being that I was bullied in middle school and one of the names I was called was “creature.” The reason I link this with the song is because of the lyric “I was a creature before I could stand.” For me, it’s saying that everyone’s different in their own way and bullying people is useless. “I will remember before I forget” I interpret this lyric as not forgiving your bullies for what they put you through and that sticking with you throughout your whole life, i know this probably isn’t why slipknot wrote this song, but it’s the reason that it’s special to me.

  5. thedevmiester
    click a star to vote
    Dec 19th 2021 !⃝

    The song is about destroying your ego. “I am a world before I am a man” means he, like the rest of us, are only one of many. On a grand scale, we are all just part of one rock floating through space. While we like to believe we are important or special, we truly aren’t. We are just a part of this world we live on. “I was a creature before I could stand” serves the same purpose of attacking one’s ego, because it reminds us that we were, and still are, simply creatures before we were able to think introspectively and question our existence. In the following lines, he emphasizes that he will remember these facts, and use them as a reminder to keep from engaging in the material aspects of life.

  6. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Feb 12th 2018 !⃝

    I think it is focused on the difference between every person but is also focused on proving the evolution theory:
    'I was a creature before i could stand'
    meaning
    'before i could walk i was a creature(monkey)'

    Yes i am an Atheist

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  7. skullripper48
    click a star to vote
    Jun 17th 2017 !⃝

    this song is saying that we are not all of equal value to everything, it is saying that we are completely worthless, ALL OF US, and we were all wretched creatures before we were valued.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  8. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 1st 2014 !⃝

    Okay first off Corey Taylor is not a Christian... he has talked about this many of times. In fact he said he's atheist. So this throws us in evolution, now I don't believe Darwin's evolution.. I believe how we all evolve in our on ways and the family before your presence can still bite you because of how society views are that history repeats itself.

  9. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 18th 2014 !⃝

    I see this like someone been used by another, some sick relationship

    Stapled shut inside an outside world
    And I'm sealed in tight, bizarre, but right at home
    (he's never inside her personal life, is bizar but he's used to this)


    I'm ripped across the ditch, and settled in the dirt
    And I wear you like a stitch, yet I'm the one who's hurt

    (he now knows shes using her, but still stay and dont care. He "use" her to get better, but still is the one whos hurt.)


    My end
    It justifies my means
    All I ever do is delay
    My every attempt to evade
    The end of the road and my end
    It justifies my means
    All I ever do is delay
    My every attempt to evade
    The end of the road

    (the end of the relationship, that he just delay ,he try to escape but he still need to do)

    I am a world before I am a man
    I was a creature before I could stand
    I will remember before I forget
    Before I forget that

    (here i look like hes saying hes better than this, but he was nothing before he could stand and fight, and never forget that.)

  10. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 19th 2012 !⃝

    "I was a world before i am a man" I feel like he's saying he was part of the world before he was born. He had a deep effect on the world and what it's come to before he was ever brought into existence. " I was a creature before i could stand" Their were "Creatures" in the world causing chaos and hate in the world and he was a part of that before he was even able to change it. Basically his fate has already been sealed because the human race always fall back to their in line progress through life.

  11. mgrube1
    click a star to vote
    Apr 27th 2012 !⃝

    I think struggles in life that we go through everyday that have fear. It is living life growing up through times.That past is there to learn by mistakes we made.

  12. anonymous
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    May 2nd 2011 !⃝

    I think this song is about feeling claustrophobic in a situation between the right and the wrong things you need or you have to do. "My end, it justifies my means". The notion of good and evil become relative, because, the end is good but the means did not

  13. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 28th 2011 !⃝

    My personal opinion is that this song is about unrequited love.
    "I wear you like a stain, yet I'm the one who's obscene"
    He wants to keep memories before he forget it,before he forget that he used to love.

    My end
    It justifies my means
    All I ever do is delay
    My every attempt to evade
    The end of the road and my end
    It justifies my means
    All I ever do is delay
    My every attempt to evade
    THE END OF THE ROAD!

  14. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 14th 2011 !⃝

    Lol wow.. I just kinda wanted to know exactly what the meaning behind the song meant not necessarily what everyones opinion was lol but it defiantly gave me a laugh especially the whole abortions thing I mean seriously? Wow.. Lol

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  15. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 3rd 2011 !⃝

    I agree with the person that said that this is a anti-abortion song.
    The fist verse
    "Stapled shut, inside an outside world and I'm Sealed in tight, bizarre but right at home Claustrophobic, closing in.
    I think is talking about a fetus, sealed inside a place that is strangly home, kinda sounds like in you mom's belly.
    And then theres other parts too like.
    "I was a creature before I could stand"
    before you could stand you where a baby, but you where still you. There are other things in there too. But that is just what I took from it.

  16. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jan 30th 2011 !⃝

    I think it is about evolution. It is about him hiding the fact that he was a ape or the dirt below his feet. It also correlates to the fact that he calls himself a maggot, it's to remember he was regular until evolved into something more. I mean if he was regular everyone would treat him like crap. So, by a stain he means that the old him is a stain compared to the new him.

  17. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Dec 7th 2010 !⃝

    once again. a christian based song. the i am a world before i am a man part is about how adam was created from dirt and so are all of us. i was a creature part is saying that we are all born sinners

  18. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Feb 3rd 2010 !⃝

    Not every song has a meaning behind it. So maybe this is one of those songs. Where you can get your own meaning from it. With a sing like that you can reach tons of people. Each persons meaning can make them a stronger/better person. So I think there's no intended meaning for this song.

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